Wednesday, May 05, 2004

Posted here Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 8:21:15 PM     Well, it is important to read Friedman in tomorrow's NYT. He goes as far as to suggest Bush needs to fire Rumsfeld and deeply change. Odds? Not favorable. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/opinion/06FRIE.html  ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 8:11:29 PM     Once things start to move, then the media is sensitized, and more such stories are found. Are Bush days nearly over? EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF U.S.-FUNDED IRAQI NEWSPAPER QUITS, COMPLAINING OF AMERICAN CONTROL By Lee Keath Associated Press / Boston Globe May 3, 2004 http://www.boston.com/dailynews/124/world/Editor_in_chief_of_U_S_funded_P.shtml BAGHDAD, Iraq - The head of a U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quit and saidMonday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication. On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were ''celebrating the end of a nightmare wehave suffered from for months ... We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse.'' Al-Sabah was set up by U.S. officials with funding from the Pentagon soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. Since its first issue in July, many Iraqis have considered it the mouthpiece of the U.S.-led coalition, along with the U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya. ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 12:20:10 PM     overheard In terms of American Revolutionary treatment of POW's, in at least one instance, Hessian POW's were kept at Monticello by Thomas Jefferson and I believe, from readings on this point, treated as dinner guests or house guests during their internment there. ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 9:26:37 AM     A lack of Bush leadership in Mideast media.. here is a very good longish article describing the attempts and the failures. It looks like this never had high profile. And my view is that in the non-conversational follow the chain administration, nothing has high profile. http://www.techcentralstation.com/050304B.html And this excellent description, also from counterpunch Against an impressive amount of warnings, from a wide variety of sources, including the intelligence community, as to the complexity of the Iraqi situation and the high risks involved in letting loose, imprudently, the long-compressed popular dynamics in that country, the Bush administration chose to listen only to a very specific set of "experts": the Pentagon's friends among the Iraqi opposition in exile. The most symptomatic of them in my view is Kanan Makiya-a man who has much been quoted as part of a neocon cabal led by former "Trotskyites" that took the helm of U.S. foreign policy, according to a somewhat phantasmagoric view propagated by both liberal and conservative circles. ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 8:23:01 AM     CACI, the security company, deeply involved, has a conference call on line. http://www.shareholder.com/caci/MediaRegister.cfm?MediaID=11843 ********

Posted here Wednesday, May 05, 2004 at 8:11:23 AM     The weekend was spent on personal business. Sorry for the delay. The weekend, in so far as it was concerned with the US and its footprint in Iraq, was horrible. I am sure most of us feel deeply dirtied by this regime, unthinking, unstrategic, unable to understand symbol, feeling, empathy, compassion, and reduces leadership to up and down the chain, no cross conversations, no learning, self absorbed and self righteous.I am beginning to think that we may be at the end of the presidential logic and need to turn to a parliamentary system and an enhanced public ethic. The tendency of the President to become emerial is too strong an inducement. Blair is bad enough, but not enarly as inaccessible, as he has to face parliament nearly every working day. I note in the announcements  about the prison one good thought. Miller was brought in from Guantanamo Bay a month ago to take over the U.S. detention and interrogation operation in Iraq after a report found serious abuses had occurred last year at Abu Ghraib, where Saddam Hussein once had thousands tortured. "I will personally guarantee that this will not happen again in any of the operations we have for detention and intelligence gathering," Miller said after showing reporters round the jail. He said we would ask the Red Cross if it would set up a permanent presence at Abu Ghraib to monitor activities there. http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&;c=StoryFT&cid=1083180292616 But hey, why not close it? Now, a problem is, Miller, coming from Guantanamo, may not have been a good choice. But what is most on my mind is, how deep will this cut? The world has been moved by this. Will the US, its government, its citizens? I am not wise enough in the dynamics of media and public mood to know. ********